This is the best Civilization up to this point, and the DLC just made it even better. I will grant that the with all the add ons it would feel a tad crowded to anyone who hadn't played it before, but you have a crazy amount of options. The game series tagline of "one more turn" could not be more applicable.

You can strive for one of several victories: diplomatic, cultural, technological or domination. Each has its unique challengers to overcome and create a lot of the fun of the game. They are also not necessarily mutually exclusive and after completing one victory, you can go for the others. Each AI opponent has their own personality, and are pretty predictable in how they behave. Any one who has started the game next to Neopoleon or Ghengis Kahn knows they immediately have to have a decent military to repel invasion, while Ghandi will to muscle you out with religion and culture.

There are some important changes between Civilization IV and V. One of the most notable is that wars are plausible again as you dont constantly lose health in enemy territory and cities are easier to conquer. Additionally, culture doesn't automatically take over neighbor's cities anymore.

This game is easily worth the money. I'm not entirely sure how it stacks up to Civilization VI, but any game that I log 200+ hours on over a period of years and still haven't come close to doing everything is doing something right. A great game from a great series.

Love this game, I bought it for my grandpa originally and he played it non stop til he passed away. I believe he had around 600+ hours on it. So from a 66 year old to a now 17 year old collectively enjoy this game.This was the account i set up for him also but then he gave me the computer in his will and i kept it going.

2,373 people found this review helpful3,064 people found this review funny

Recommended

177.3 hrs on record

Posted: October 13, 2014

50 Hours into your latest save, all is going well. Only 3 leaders left Gandhi, Caesar and Washington.you draft an 'end game' plan in your mind, you will make friends with Gandhi (for obvious reasons he's chill) then procede to befriend Caesar.

Then you will take out Washington because he is a♥♥♥♥♥♥and did not accept an open border agreement 3000 years prior HE MUST PAY. 20 turns later all is going to plan, we are now on Washingtons doorstep, Gandhi and Caesar appear to love and probably fear your superpower nation. All we need to do is eliminate the pesky Americans and ith all our military now on American soil this should not take long.

Then after the swift invasion of America we will make a vote for world peace at the U.N (in rome of course) with our new found Indian and Roman brethren it is a sure win!But all of a sudden the distant droning of nuclear sirens start, quickly they become louder and louder, "what is this!?" you think to yourself, a false alarm? You shrug it off maybe Caesae bombing a city state.

The game pauses... Gandhi appears on the screen, with a sinister grin he shouts "WAR" in your face. Only seconds after you see a gut wrenching sight. The camera focuses on a nuclear submarine stationed just off the coast of your pride and joy, the capital of your glorious nation.

You then hear a rumble, just seconds after a nuclear warhead emerges from the previously hidden submarine, you realise it is too late... you can only watch as the missle closes in. As your city goes up in a giant cloud there are short lived screams from your beloved people, then silence.

Before what had just occurred had sunk in, before you could make rescue efforts to save your much loved citizens the humming of quiet engines fall upon your ears. Suddenly countless 'stealth bombers' appear seemingly out of no where, soon the sky is blackened by planes, the game falls almost silent only the whistle of falling bombs remains. You faint from the shock of what is unfolding.

You awake shortly after, Gandhi is still flattening what remains of your once prosperous empire, now with 'giant death robots' making the most of his seemingly never ending turn. As Gandhi clinically and relentlessly razes what's left of your broken nation all you can do is weep, your people hacked down in their prime and your glorious nation so mighty just minutes before has just been been all but eliminated in 1 turn.

Why oh why did you turn of autosave? did it really speed your game up? was it worth it?

Ghandi is a complete ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, he acts like your friend but WILL nuke the♥♥♥♥♥♥out of you if even the slightest oppurtunity presents itself. 10/10

308 people found this review helpful353 people found this review funny

Recommended

141.9 hrs on record

Posted: April 14, 2017

My story during my 2nd playthrough*-I choose russia -10 turns into the game I discover babylon about 10 tiles away from moscow- "This isn't gonna end well"-I discover arabia and korea-I found my 2nd city (St Petersburg)

*About 100 turns later* (little conflicts happen here and there)

-Washington and Venice discover me-Babylon denounces me for settling too close to him- Babylon denounces Venice because they felt like it.

*Another 50 turns passes, We discover England*-"WOULD YOU BE INTERSETED IN A TRADE AGREEMENT WITH ENGLAND"

-Babylon sends a ton of millitary to my borders-I Send my millitary to block him off-Babylon denounces me for having my millitary at his borders- "Kill me..."-Arabia denounces me as well.

*20 turns later*

-Arabia and Babylon declare war on me and send both of their armies at St Petersburg.-I had just discovered great war inf and they had rifles, so I had the tech advantage-They fail at seiging St Petersburg-I send my millitary at Babylon-Babylon asks for peace... haha no.-I am able to take babylon (he still has 3 cities)-Korea and Washington praise me for taking Babylon's capital

*More turns go by, little conflicts here and there.*

-Babylon and Arabia come out of nowhere and attack Venice-Venice doesn't stand a chance and loses its capital-Korea is allies w/venice so he sends his army down at arabia-Arabia and Babylon double team his army- Washington gets involved and sends troops down to help Korea(I was allied with wahsington at this time)-"Great, now I have to get involved..." World war 1 begins...-I ask England if she wants to help too, but she just wanted trade agreements...-Washington and I get involved in the war, we help korea survive this onslaught of babylon and arabia.-Washington and I move our troops in on arabia-Arabia asks for peace, we accept.-Babylon does the same. World war 1 ends...-City states decide to keep going at it, (city states broken up into whoever they allied with fight).

*More turns go by, at this point everyone was in the indusrial era, korea and I were in the atomic era.*-Babylon attempts to embargo venice-"The whole world except for arabia votes no.-Venice tells babylon to **** off-"Not this again".-Washington and Korea denounce babylon for bullying venice. The denouncing war begins...-Babylon denounces them for denouncing him-Arabia Ranomly denounces England for asking for too many trade agreements. (bad idea).

*More turns go by, I think everyone was in the atomic era by now.*

-The venecians cry themselves to sleep as babylon continues to bully them.-Washington and Korea denounce babylon again for bullying Venice, The denouncing war rages on...-Babylon gets triggered once again and denounces them back, along with arabia.-Babylon and arabia go at venice again...-"You have to be joking me..."-Korea and washington declare war on babylon and arabia. World war 2 begins...-Babylon and arabia have the best millitaries so far, they crush koreas army and close in on one of their coastal cities.-They begin sieging seoul...-The british royal navy shows up and hammers the arabian army (remember when arabia denounced them, they haven't forgot about that).-Babylon goes to war with England.-Korea praises england for saving them

*A few turns go by*

- Washington goes to war with england and sieges york ( I guess they had some dispute before idk).-*Grabs Popcorn* " Wtf is going on".-England takes york back, england and america decide to keep it cool.-Meanwhile I'm just sitting back watching all of this go down as I rush research for the space race.-Venice shows up with their little venecian army and take their capital back-Washington, korea and I are dying laughing.-We hurt babylons feelings I guess, so he fires nukes at Washington.-New york fires nukes at babylon-I had a lot of trade routes to Washington so this effected my economy a lot *shakes in anger*.-i have 4 nukes in reserve, I fire 1 at babylon.-Babylon denounces me for shooting a nuke at him-"lmao".-Arabia gets involved and fires a nuke at St Petersburg-I fire my last 3 nukes at his capital in anger.-As I was doing this, I didn't realize that a Korean troop was near mecca, therefore they got hit by the nuke.-Korea declares war on me-Washington declares war on me-"Kill me now"...-I am now a few techs away from winning the space race-Korea is right behind me though-Washington and korea sends millitary to St Petersburg-I hold out once again, and continue building spaceship parts-Babylon and Arabia declare war on me-"WTF"-Now 4 armies are closing in on St Petersburg-I start sending my paratroopers in all directions, along with my helicopters.-St Petersburg is about to be taken-England shows up just to watch it all go down.-I'm now 2 turns away from getting the SS engine-I send every available millitary troop to defend the engine (it was built in St petersburg on its way to Moscow)-I get the engine a few tiles away from moscow, 1 MORE TURN-The entire world begins to close in on moscow-I build the space ship and launch to space, Winning a tech victory.

1,255 people found this review helpful1,401 people found this review funny

Recommended

451.7 hrs on record

Posted: December 8, 2014

-playing as the US-explores and finds siam-befriends siam-finds greece-greece is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and invades-gets in a war with greece-takes 2 greek cities and returnes the rest-greece is happy-sails to new lands and finds all other nations-befirends russia and china-gets in a foolish war with siam not knowing that every nation exept china and russia is friends with siam-feels sad because everyone hates me-makes peace with siam because im feeling guilty for being a warmonger-people start being nice to me-feels happy, only germany and arabia are guarded, everyone else is friendly-china asked me to declaire war on arabia even though he has done nothing to me-I decline because Ive decided to be an example to the civilized world-china declares war on and denounces me-germany declares war on me-every nation on earth exept for russia declaires war on me-me and russia vs. the world-I have 3 nukes and no one else has any-cant make myself use them-steamroll enemy city states south of me-steamroll greece to the north-steamroll native american settlements on some islands near me-siam discovers urainum-siam is confirmed to have nuclear power plant-must stop siam from getting nukes-US gunships race to punch a hole in siams defences-all reserve units are embarked for the invasion with destroyer escorts-gunships meet uber heavy resistance-invasion due in 2 turns-russia is being cut off from US aid-sends paratroopers to break the siege of moscow-fails due to being outnumbered 20:1-D-Day in siam-steamrolls siam until only capital left-no sign of atomic weapons-100,000 troops surrounding the capital-air raid sirens-siam nukes himself four times along with most of my troops-paras mop up and capture the capital-sad music-all other nations in shock-we mourn our fallen troops-all nations make peace in the next 4 turns-we all are sad-decides war must end for good-changes course for diplomatic victory-starts work on UN-becomes allies with 19 city states-all nations live in realitive peace-finishes UN-wins vote-wins game

Civilization V is not a new game. On the contrary, it's almost seven years ago. Its sequel, Civilization VI, has been out for almost a year. Despite that, I find myself repeatedly coming back to Civilization V to get my 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) strategy game fix. Having gotten back on a Civilization kick this past week or so, I plan to review Civilization VI before too long, but before I do, I thought it would be good to go back to the game that got me full-on addicted to the series.

Civilization puts you in the role of the leader of a budding civilization, having you build from a single settler unit and a warrior unit to - hopefully - a massive empire turning the world green with envy with your religion, culture, science, economy, and military might. The base game includes 18 unique civilizations, each with their own unique units, traits, strengths, and weaknesses. There are two major expansions that add an additional 18 civilizations along with a few more minor DLC packs that add another seven civilizations for a grand total of 43. It's not just the in-game differences that make these civilizations unique but the detail that went into them; every civilization leader is fully animated and complete with lines of dialogue spoken in the leader's native tongue. For example, when interacting with the Romans, you'll see Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, fully animated with lines recorded in Latin. When interacting with the Aztecs, you'll see Moctezuma I (no, that's not a typo) speaking Nahuatl. While it's not exactly a work of historical fact, obviously, as a history teacher, the amount of detail that went into the leaders and their presentation makes me absolutely giddy.

Civilization V offer five different paths of victory. Of course, you have the tried and true domination victory in which you must crush your enemies. As of the Brave New World expansion, you must control all players' original capitals including your own to achieve a domination victory, meaning that you could technically win through domination without actually wiping out a single civilization. Leaving them alive, however, will obviously give them incentive to retaliate and rid their capital of your filth. You also have the option of a science victory, requiring you to complete certain research projects, build, and be the first to launch a starship to Alpha Centauri. Cultural victory involves making your culture so vibrant and desirable through various policy upgrades (that, in turn, end up influencing your Tourism) that other civilizations' citizenry all start to prefer your culture over any other. Diplomatic victory involves progressing to the point where the World Congress is created and then develops into the United Nations. From there, you must attain enough votes from your own delegates as well city-states or - if they have no sense of self-preservation - other empires to be elected "world leader" by the UN. The last victory type is the time or score victory. Unless this victory type is disabled, whoever has the highest total score by 2050 AD (that's turn 500 on standard speed) is the winner. Score is determined by pretty much everything - gold in your treasury, units you possess, research you've done, territory you control, the number of cities in your empire, the population of your empire....it's an exhaustive list, but the idea is straightforward - the highest score wins. Of these various victory types, cultural is probably the most obscure due to the less-than-straightforward relation between the culture that generates your policy upgrades and the tourism stat that actually triggers the victory.

My favorite thing about Civilization is that it can be as confrontational as you want it to be. If you want to, you can start wrecking♥♥♥♥♥♥right off the bat. If you're more into the empire building aspect than the empire conquering aspect like me, you can build up your empire relatively peacefully, maintaining just a defensive army (or no army) and focusing on science, culture, and city growth. Diplomacy, while having some flaws in Civ V, allows for relatively peaceful interactions as well as confrontation with various trade options and a few different kinds of pacts you can pursue with other nations. Making all of this better is the option of playing online with a mix of people and CPUs. My favorite thing to do is play with a couple of friends and handful of computer players and - hopefully - keep a relatively cooperative, peaceful relationship with my human counterparts. It's a lot like Risk in that there are some backroom deals going on but unlike Risk, avoiding confrontation is a perfectly viable option.

Civilization V was, in my opinion, the absolute pinnacle of strategy game perfection at the time of its release. As my first "main" Civilization game (excluding the spin-off Civilization Revolution), it's secured both a very special place in my heart as well as the status of being my primary point of reference when playing any other Civilization or 4X strategy game. While there are a few areas that I think could have been improved, it's still a definite masterpiece of strategy design. The detail of the maps, the variety of strategic and luxury resources to claim and exploit, the diplomatic aspects, the number of different victory types, and the diverse array of civilizations from which to choose all make this game truly mind blowing when you stop and think about it. If you have any interest at all in strategy games, I'd give this one a go. With Civilization VI having been on the market for nearly a year, Civ V isn't too pricey these days, and it's still an amazing experience, and that's even before you take into account the various (and often hilarious) mods on the Steam Workshop that you can download. Of all the games I've recommended, this is one of the most highly recommended, hands down.

2,068 people found this review helpful3,042 people found this review funny

Recommended

391.5 hrs on record

Posted: November 13, 2014

It's like crack. You keep telling yourself 'just one more turn'. but then you realize you've been sitting in your underwear for for 36 hours and you've forgotten to check on your wife who gave birth to your baby last night.